Presently, users of most communication applications such as telephone, electronic mail (email) or Internet websites are required to input a predetermined address string into a communication application in order to establish the desired communication with the intended recipients. For example, the user of an email application must input an address string in the form of a predetermined email address such as johndoe@address.com in order to send an email message to the recipient.
An address string is generally presumed to be a sequence of components having alpha-numeric or other human and/or machine recognizable characters. Such address sequences can generally be of any length or component type but their exact configurations are typically predetermined by the service provider of the communication application. For example in the case of telephone, the address string used is the telephone number whose length and digit sequence are often set by the telephone service provider. Likewise, in the case of an Internet website, a predetermined Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is typically used by an Internet user to access a desired website.
The use of some address strings, such as telephone numbers, to establish communication with another location across a communication medium has been well known in the art. But recent technological advances, especially in the computer networking and telecommunication fields have resulted in the introduction of numerous new and/or different forms of communication. For example, communication by use of electronic mail, World Wide Web sites, or other communication application such as facsimile are amongst such previously unavailable alternatives to a telephone call.
The increase in the number of ways to communicate, however, has resulted in an undesirable corresponding increase in both the number and types of address strings associated with each such form of communication. Furthermore, the underlying technologies used to implement such diverse communication applications typically require a user to input an address string that is largely unique to that technology in order to operate and derive the desired benefit from the communication application. Even the communication applications of the same type but with different formats, such as an email application by two different email service providers, often require the use of different address strings. For example an individual having email accounts with two or more email service providers is a single recipient entity who will nonetheless have two or more associated email addresses, usually in the form of one email address for each service provider.
One problem with the existing approach of assigning one address string per user per communication application is the generation of multiple address strings for a single recipient. For example, in trying to establish communication with a hypothetical recipient John Doe having email, world wide web site and a telephone, an end-user must often know and correctly remember the distinct address strings associated with each such application in order to establish communication with John Doe using that application. The user would thus have to correctly input for example, johndoe@address.com to send Doe an email, input an often lengthy and difficult to remember URL string such as http://www.address.com/johndoe to access Doe's website and input a phone number into a phone system in order to establish telephone communication with Doe.
The requirements for an end-user to know and correctly remember the separate address strings is further exacerbated by the prior art's use of Domain Names as website addresses. A Domain Name, such as www.uspto.gov, is a form of an address string that is generally designed to include human recognizable characters and/or numbers in order to aid the user with the finding and/or recollection of the correct address string. Once inputted into the communication application, a system Domain Name Server (DNS) converts the Domain Name into a standard numeric Internet Protocol (IP) Address such as 255.100.1.0 for internal network use.
The implementation of Domain Names as address strings has not however been without shortcomings. Domain Names have grown increasingly longer in length over time, making them harder to remember. In addition, there is a general lack of a standards as to what spelling conventions will be adhered to in the domain name composition, or even what language they are to appear in. Since domain names are often registered for legal recognition, such lack of standards often translate into having to register a domain name in numerous ways to encompass the different languages and/or spelling variations within each language in which domain name is to be used.
Furthermore, since for practical purposes there are a relatively limited number of words with which to create a domain name, legal ramifications such as trademark disputes and the illicit cumulating of domain names in violation of cybersquatting laws have followed.
A DNS is also limited in the handling of errors or variations in the inputted Domain Name such as those caused by misspelling or mistakes, such as insertion of an underline instead of a hyphen in the address. These errors or variations often cause the DNS to not recognize and/or improperly resolve the address string, resulting in the failure of the user to connect to an intended destination in a DNS based system. In addition, a DNS based system is largely limited to the Internet web addresses and does not address the problem of multiple address strings for other communication applications such as emails and telephone numbers.
Recent attempts in dealing with the problems of several address strings have revolved around consolidating the address strings by use of Unified Messaging Systems such as Microsoft's Exchange Server and MCI's Onebox.com message delivery system. These attempts, however, fall short of solving the problem of multiple addressing strings per user for several reasons. First, the messaging system approach revolves around the sending of a message via fax, voice box, etc. This however, does not allow for a direct calling and connecting to a human being by a standard voice call as in a telephone system. Second, the messaging systems are primarily designed for a telephone service operation such as fax, voice box, etc and still do not address the multiple addressing strings problem of other applications such as emails and URL.
It is therefore the objects of the present invention to address the forgoing deficiencies in the prior art.